Handloaders cartridge case gauge device



Nov. 16, 1965 LOVE T 3,211,417

HANDLOADERS CARTRIDGE CASE GAUGE DEVICE Filed March 2, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 7

FIG. 3

INVENTORS l7 HOWARD E- EMGE EVE RT L. LOVE ATTORNEYS Nov. 16. 1965 E. I... LOVE ETAL 3,217,417

HANDLOADERS CARTRIDGE CASE GAUGE DEVICE Filed March 2, 1962 2 Sheets sheet 2 FIG. 5

31 III. v 31d 36 I 6 6 sc I L I K30 34a .I 34W: I 35 FIG. 4

l SP FIG. 6

INVENTORS FIG. 8 HOWARD E. EMGE EVE RT L. LOVE M,MJW

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,217,417 HANDLOADERS CARTRIDGE CASE GAUGE DEVICE Evert L. Love, 628 Landor Court, Lemay, Ma, and Howard E. Emge, 1723 N. Ballas Road, Kirkwood, Mo. Filed Mar. 2, 1962, Ser. No. 177,084 1 Claim. (Cl. 3314l3) This invention pertains to improvements in gauge devices fpr rifle cartridges, and is particularly directed to gauge devices which accurately determine the safe approach to the elastic limit in cartridge cases and indicate the safe powder charge and weight of bullet combination for hand loading cartridges.

An important object of this invention is to provide a simple and accurate device for gauging cartridge cases to reveal important characteristics of the cases and permit hand loading for better performance and reuse of the cases under safe conditions of loading.

Hand loading cartridge cases provides great satisfaction to shooters in improved performance of velocity, accuracy and economy, and it permits the shooter to bring cartridge loads close to the optimum for a given gun. Because of the regard for safety and the differences between guns of the same manufacture, factory loaded cases are generally under-loaded so that there will always be a margin of safety for the shooters regardless of what gun is used. In the usual cases used cartridge cases are discarded after firing which is wasteful and expensive, whereas those who desire to hand load cases are usually confronted with the need to purchase expensive equipment for obtaining proper powder loads for a given make of case and bullet. Since handloaders must necessarily be conversant with pressures which are developed in a gun chamber and with the case, there must be some way to arrive at what pressures a load gives or else there would be constant trouble. This applies also to factory loading, but factories are able to equip themselves with tools for this purpose whereas the individual handloader is not so fortunate because of the expense and limited facilities. The handloader is also at a disadvantage as there is no handy tool available which will give the handloader a quick and accurate indication of the effect produced by a given load and bullet upon a case. The result up to now is that each handloader is forced to arrive at a reasonable answer by trial and error and by experience expensively acquired.

It is, therefore, another object of this invention to provide a handy gauge for handloaders which will permit the attainment of accurate results in a quick and inexpensive manner so that any desired combination of case, bullet and powder load can be determined with safety.

Pressures vary with the amount and kind of powder used, as well as with the Weight and caliber of bullet. Pressures also vary when a smaller than normal bore is used or when the throat ,of the chamber is tight or when cartridges are reused until the neck has thickened and holds the bullets more tightly than normal. It is a common failing of handloaders not to trim the case necks to suit the gun chamber so that the bullet is jammed into the throat and is not free to pass down the barrel easily. Pressures can increase rapidly and to dangerous values in such cases so that the handloader must be aware of these conditions for added safety.

Accordingly, it is a further object of this invention to provide a simple device which will give the handice loader an accurate tool for sizing a case to avoid the aforementioned problems.

It is another object of this invention to provide a gauge device which is inexpensive but easy to use and will give an accurate indication of a safe powder load for the type of case and weight of bullet being used and will also provide a quick check on case dimensions so that the foregoing problems encountered by handloaders can be handled with substantially complete safety and with a minimum of expense.

A further object of this invention resides in the provision of a simple gauge device which can be used to determine when a case should be discarded due to exceeding its elastic limit so that the economy of hand loading used cases will not be carried to the point of danger.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be disclosed in the following description of certain preferred embodiments wherein the componentsand parts herein disclosed are considered to come within the scope of the invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a gauge device for checking case dimensions to provide handloaders wit-h means to obtain desired bullet velocity with safety and long case life;

FIG. 2 is a sectional elevational view seen at line 2-2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the gauge of FIG. 1 showing its use with a case;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a gauge device for checking case dimensions to provide handloaders with means to assist the device of FIG. 1 in determining hand loaded reused case characteristics;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the device of FIG. 4 to illustrate its use;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken at line 6-6 in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the gauges of FIGS. 1 and 4 combined into a unitary device; and

FIG. 8 is a view of a series of test elements to be used with the devices of either FIGS. 4 or 7.

In FIGS. 1 and 2 the gauge device 10 comprises a body having spaced parts 11 and 11a providing a cartridge case receiving space formed in one face with the bottom of the space substantially flat and even to form a slideway. The body part 11a is provided with a bore 13 to receive a hardened pin 14, the inner end 15 being exposed for a short length in the space 12. The body part 11 is provided with a bore 16 axially aligned with the bore 13. The inner end of bore 16 is open at the space 12. A hardened gauge feeler pin 17 is slidably movable in bore 16 and has one end 18 reduced or flattened at one side to slide out of the bore 16 into the slot 12 toward the end 15 of fixed pin 14. The outer end of pin 17 is provided with a knob 19 by which it may be moved, and a spring 20 is disposed over the pin 17 between the body part 11 and the knob 19 to urge the pin 17 into a retracted position relative to the space 12 and fixed pin 14. Pin 17 is retained in the body part 11 by a set screw 21 located to project into a pin recess 22 so that the screw 21 may be engaged by the stop projection 23 on the pin 17. A thumb screw 24 threaded into the body part 11 engages the pin 17 to retain it in any of its adjusted positions; that is to say, in a position in which the distance D (FIG. 3) between the end 15 of fixed pin 14 and the end 18 of pin 17 is held by the inner end of the thumb screw 24 engaging on a flat surface 25 of pin 17.

The gauge is used to check the maximum load a gun will safely handle by measuring the rim portion of a case before and after firing. By doing this a handloader can develop top velocity with safety and long case life. In operation, a handloader normally starts with a new case 26 and places the rim 2'7 flat in the space 12 between the fixed pin end 15 and the movable pin end 18. The pin 17 is adjusted until the case rim 27 will just snugly pass between the pins while rotating the case to check for roundness of the rim 27. The case 26 and several like it are then loaded with various amounts of powder, beginning with a load of about four grains below the manufacturers advertised maximum and graduated up to this maximum. Each case will have the same weight of bullet and the same make of primer, as well as the same type of powder. After each case is fired it is set in the space 12 and the flange is tried between the previously set pins 15 and 18. A slight rotating action is given to each case while keeping it flat on the bottom of the space to avoid tipping the rim 27 which would give a false indication. If each case rim 27 will pass the pre-set pins the load is safe for the gun used as there has been no pressure expansion of the rim. Assuming that each of the aforementioned test cases will pass the pins it can be determined that the gun may handle an even larger powder charge and by increasing the charge one grain at a time it will eventually be found that a case rim will not pass between the pins. That particular load is then too much for the gun and all subsequent cases can be loaded with the next lower charge and used in the gun with safety. A record of the make of case, bullet, primer and gun is kept so that subsequent hand loaded cases can be made when needed.

With the gauge 10 being used periodically cases may be reused indefinitely. That is the case rims can be rechecked from time to time to determine if the repeated use may have stretched the case rim material to a point where they will not pass between the pin ends 15 and 18 after such ends have been again pre-set with a new case. A gauge of the character described has been found to be exceedingly accurate and will detect a defective case rim which may have expanded only one ten-thousandth of an inch. The theory of the gauge is based upon the fact that a gun chamber so closely holds the case that the weakest Zone is usually at the breech and when excess pressure is developed, from too great a load of powder or too heavy a bullet or too long a case, the pressure stretches the case rim which is its weakest zone. Some case materials have better elastic characteristics than others, but the occurrence of rim stretch is the quickest and most reliable characteristic to use to determine if the case is safe for reuse. The present gauge can be used with any case and will quickly detect if a load is too much, whether the gun be new or old, and it is especially valuable to find safe loading factors for old or much used guns.

A factor involved in determining safe reloading of cases, and one of those mentioned above, is that of case length, since case length will largely determine the position of the bullet in the throat of the bore and consequently that will affect the pressure developed at firing. Case length may be quickly determined with the gauge 30 of FIGS. 4 to 6, inclusive. In these views, the gauge 30 has a body composed of the opposite end members or parts 31 and 32. The body parts 31 and 32 form a slideway and are held by two spaced apart similar bars or rods 33 having the ends secured in the parts 31 and 32.

by press-fitting the same in suitable holes or by staking the ends in such holes. The rods 33 are parallel and are accurately formed with the body parts 31 and 32 such that the inner faces 31a and 32a are fiat and perpendicular to the axis of each rod. The body rods 33 slidably support a movable platform or gauge member 34 having a flat'face 4 34a cooperating with the face 31a of the part 31. The gauge member 34 is held in adjusted position by a set screw 35.

The gauge 30 requires the cooperation of a length test element such as a standard case SC. The case SC is placed upon the member 34 and adjacent the rods 33 for purposes of cradling the case SC in position. The member 34 is adjusted on the rods 33 until the end of the case neck 36 is just snug against the surface 31a, after which the set screw 35 is tightened. Assuming the case 26 of FIG. 3 is to be tested for length L, such case 26 is fittted into the gauge 30 in the same attitude as the case SC but on the opposite side of rods 33. If the case 26 has the correct length it should just as snugly fit into the gauge between surfaces 31a and 340. If case 26 is too long it will not fit and must be trimmed to the correct length. If too short the case should be discarded as it will not properly locate the bullet in the chamber of the gun.

It is, of course, understood that the rods 33 of the gauge 30 will be sufficiently long to accommodate the range of cases in use, as for example, the short cases having a length of 1.700 inches or less and up to the cases having a length of 2.900 inches or more. There are presently approximately some 51 popular cartridge case lengths which can be grouped into about 15 different case length categories so that fifteen cases like standard case SC of FIG. 5 may be accurately prepared for use with the gauge 30. Each standard case SC may be suitably inscribed with the group of cases falling into its length category.

An alternate to using standard cases is shown in FIG. 8, wherein a set of standard pins SP, SP, SP" and so on, may be made up to cover the 15 or more categories of case length variations. Each standard pin SP will have ground end faces and a length to match the case length tolerances permitted.

While gauges 10 and 30 may be used separately, even though they relate to the same problems of hand loading, it is seen in FIG. 7 that they may also be combined into one handy device 40. The device 46 has a body composed of one end part 41, a pair of bars or rods 42 connected to part 41 and, in turn, connected at the opposite ends to a second part 43 in substantially the same way gauge 30 is made. The rods 42 slidably carry an adjustable platform or gauge member 44 provided with a set screw 45. The gauge 44 functions in gauge 40 just as gauge 34 functions in gauge 30. On the other hand, the end part 41 is formed in substantially the same manner as gauge 10, and except for the mounting of part 41 on rods 42 the parts and elements are similar and will be designated by the same reference numerals as those used in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 for the sake of brevity of description.

Gauge 40 may be easier to handle as the rods 42- and part 43 may be used to hold the end part 41 while gauging a case rim as described in connection with FIG. 3. It is understood, of course, that the gauge 40 will be used with the set of standard cases SC or with the set of standard pins SP so that the function of the several parts and cases or pins will not vary from that already set forth above.

In view of the foregoing description relating to certain preferred embodiments of this invention it should be understood in what manner the cartridge gauge device is intended to be used. Certain changes and alterations may be made or will come to mind after appreciating the scope of this disclosure and all such changes. and alterations are intended to be included Within the spirit and scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

In a handloaders gauging device for measuring dimensional characteristics of cartridge cases to detect safe from unsafe cases for handloading reuse, the combination of a body having spaced enlarged parts connected by another part of said body forming a slideway, a first one of said enlarged parts having a first gauge surface in said slideway, means on said body adjustably and selectively movable in said slideway toward and away from said first gauge surface, said movable means having a gauge surface thereon, said first one of said enlarged parts having a second slideway therein and a second gauge surface thereon in said second slideway, and other means on said first one of said enlarged parts selectively adjustably movable in said second slideway toward and away from said second gauge surface.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 407,903 7/1889 Schlatter 33147 423,284 3/1890 Smith 33-143 495,379 4/1893 Smith 33-166 0 Pynten 33163 Gardiner. Eilhauer et al 33164 Zigler et a1. 33-143 Malloy 33163 Weikel 33-143 Foster. Leasure 33166 Naab 33-147 Zabloudil 33-443 McGaffey 33174 X Germany.

15 ISAAC LISANN, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT L. EVANS, Examiner. 

